Monday 30 August 2010

The Fall of Youth

As I previously mentioned, I saw the Youth around the time they recorded this session for John Peel's Radio 1 show.

Daydream Nation had been released and the band were on the rise.

(Funny, Daydream Nation must be one of my least played records; I'm still not sure whether I like it or not.)

Surprisingly, they decided not to take the opportunity to market their latest product, but created a set for Peel with a twist: performing, in an all-knowing, post modern, deferential fashion, four numbers from The 'Mighty' Fall's canon.

O, we all did laugh at such good fun.

Where's all the fun gone?
Anyone...?

Sonic Youth - BBC Radio 1, Peel Session, October 1988.

Psycho Mafia
Victoria
My New House
Rowche Rumble

Decent cassette rip @320kbs
Get Youth a Peel here

Thanks go to Ian for YouthFall cooperation.

Eternal Youth

Monkey hormones, I reckon.
I mean, they certainly know how to retain it.

This set comes from 1992 but it could easily have come from last year!

A mostly powerpop, rock set, highlighted by a cosmic middle section to the epic 'Sugar Kane' - the only time they get really experimental and out there.

I saw them in 88.
Their set was incredibly tight and polished - not unlike this show - but somehow, I came away feeling a little disappointed.

I don't know, there's just no pleasing some people...

Sonic Youth - Live at the Brixton Academy, 14/12/92.

100%
Dirty Books
Kool Thing
Swimsuit Issue
Genetic
Theresa's Soundworld
Tom Violence
Sugar Kane
Schizophrenia
Drunken Butterfly
Youth Against Fascism

Originally broadcast by the BBC on John Peel's Cat's Cradle [?].
Decent cassette rip @320kbs.

Get Youthful here

Sunday 22 August 2010

Stand Up Now, Stand Up Now

A bit more culture coming atcha.
But this time Kul-Cha! with a capital K.

Attila the Stockbroker, a couple of years ago, accidentally performed a gig in my near vicinity.
He got the booking muddled up apparently.
He thought he was going to play in a city that just so happens to have the same name as the small village he ended up playing in.

There's a lot of that in Wales.
It's almost as if they [who?] had a finite amount of potential place names for Wales, and once used up, well, they just used them again.
I mean, shouldn't cause a problem...

Well it did, fortunately for me and about fifty others, and Attila stuck to his word and fulfilled the gig.
(His problem came down to distance.
The gig he thought he was going to perform is about half way from London to the gig he did perform; furthering his journey by approximately two hours.
Wales is very wide at its thickest.)

It was at that gig that I acquired this DVD.
A 2004 recording of Attila captured in Chicago whilst touring North America with politico minstrel David Rovics.

Nothing is lost by this being an audio rip - the set is awful: a reflecting window to the side of the stage, filmed by a static camera - and of course Attila is all about language anyway.

Excellent show this; Attila giving a great performance; a political ambassador who's actually worth listening to.

Of course the zeitgeist is Attila's muse, but six years hasn't changed or reshaped the world too much.
And any poet who's able to make Guy Fawkes and Aneurin Bevan relevant ('Guy Fawkes' Table') in a polemic against New Labour isn't going to become obsolete in half a decade now, are they?

"Aneurin Bevan, your party's dead
And the time for a new one is nigh.
Will the last person Left please turn out the lights
New Labour, just fuck off and die."

Boy, it raised a cheer when Attila performed 'Guy Fawkes' Table' down in that little Welsh village... O yes.

Attila the Stockbroker - Live at The Heartland Cafe (2004)

Intro (David Rovics)
Death of a Salesman
Baghdad Ska
Guy Fawkes' Table
Commandante Joe
My Poetic License
Asylum Seeking Daleks
Supermodel
Punk Night at The Duck's Nuts
North Korea Mourns Comrade Mickey Finn of T. Rex
Every Time I Eat Vegetables
The Bible According to Rupert Murdoch
Hey, Celebrity!
Old Teenagers
Blood For Oil/Oil Power
Libyan Students From Hell!

Audio rip from DVD @320kbs
Fuck Capitalism here

Saturday 21 August 2010

Knock For Knock

A reQuest.
Fulfilled.

Great dramatic interpretation of the six hundred year old Gawain poem, resuscitated by the Promethean skill of Simon Armitage, and realized by the BBC.

Armitage cleverly retains the alliterative style of the original anonymous Middle English text, updating the language without losing original meanings and nuance: "Born one blow without bottling out", for example.

The tale contains everything you could want from a story: partying, drinking, beheading games and ultra-violence, a quest, magic, drinking, romance, suspense and more drinking.

But at its heart is a tale of chivalry, courtliness, courage and honour; in fact, so many concepts we consider as being a bit shit in our self-abasing, self-promoting society.

Armitage's words are uttered by the most competent Sir Ian McKellan who narrates; Sam West who ventiloquizes Sir Gawain; David Fleeshman as The Green Knight and Deborah McAndrew as The Lady.

Sir Gawain and The Green Knight
Originally broadcast by the BBC on BBC Radio 4, 21/12/06.

Ripped from DVD captured broadcast @320kbs to single mp3 (45 mins)
Go greenesse here

Tuesday 17 August 2010

Ooh, Honky Tonk

Acquired this from a guy who ran an indie record shop in Finchley.
He was an extreme Deadhead - aren't they all - and because Jerry Garcia plays lead on the opening track this guy had a handful of these.

He gave a copy to me not because we shared a common love for all things Dead but due to my interest in the music of Jorma Kaukonen; which just so happens to be the stand-out material on this collection.

Kaukonen's acoustic recordings are really where his chops lie, and there's a couple of fine pieces here: one solo track from Too Hot to Handle, and one track unique to this sampler with "special friend" [!] Robert Zantay; he plays the lyricon; whatever the heck that is.

There's also a tasty Hot Tuna track; beefed up greatly by Kaukonen and Casady jamming with notes unleashed by Papa John Creach and his soaring, magic fiddle.

As for the other tracks; well they're okay: the Savoy Brown tunes are pretty good; The Burritos are good, but essentially this really showcases Kaukonen's work.

This was released on CD - although now deleted - but the Kaukonen tracks weren't included; making this little selection even more special.

O thank you Deadhead from the past... and I hope you are still alive and kicking.

Various Artists - The Relix Sampler (1985)

Decent rip from vinyl @320kbs
A little surface noise - not the best of pressings; "Side 2" is better.
Sampler here

Sunday 15 August 2010

Eye Notes

One night, a friend and I were sitting up chatting and whatnot late into the wee wee hours when we both found ourselves gripped by an overwhelming sense of fear and terror.

An evil presence had disturbed the ambiance, and it emanated from the record cover leaning alongside the hi-fi across the other side of the room.

We'd tried to ignore it, but slowly over the course of the evening Chet's intense glare had haunted us both.

Eventually, at my friend's request - although I was happy to comply - the record cover was turned around, releasing us both from Chet's unnerving stare.
The tension eased immediately.

Talk about eyes following you around the room; Chet was giving us the evil, and boy, did he give us the fear.

Great album though.

Chet - despite the intense visage - was an ever so jolly plucker; and he plays with an exuberant style, squeezing in as many notes as his seemingly rubber digits can muster.

He's one of those guitarists who's played with, and produced, just about everybody; especially those associated with the Nashville Scene.

Chet's brother Jim croons his way through several of the tracks.
'Swanee River' is hilarious; 'Blackjack' is just absurd; but Jim does become a bit of a bore (although you can cheer the tracks up by singing along. Adopting the drunken club singer stylee definitely works the best I find), and it's the instrumental tracks that really do the business.

'Heartbreak Hotel', the intriguingly titled 'Daar's 'N Wind Wat Waai' and 'Hidden Charm' make the bother of downloading well worth while.

Generally lot's of fun for everybody.
But don't look into his eyes. Don't look into his eyes!

Chet Atkins - The Guitar Genius (1963)

Heartbreak Hotel
Swanee River
Blackjack
In Apple Blossom Time
Daar's 'N Wind Wat Waai
It's Now or Never
Out of Nowhere
Hidden Charm
Even Tho'
When Day is Done

Decent vinyl rip @320kbs, enriched by the sound of forty-seven year old shellac.
Let Chet mesmerise you here,

Friday 13 August 2010

Verve (Slight Return)

Reposting this at a higher rate as I thought it was well worthy[!].

Excellent set; excellently executed and an excellent recording.

What more could anyone with even the slightest interest in The Verve want?

The Verve - Worthy Farm, Glastonbury, 29/6/08.

This is Music
Sonnet
Space and Time
Sit and Wonder
History
Velvet Morning
The Drugs Don't Work
Lucky Man
Bittersweet Symphony
Love is Noise

Excellent rip from DVD captured BBC broadcast @320kbs
ReVerve yourself here

Wednesday 11 August 2010

Oi-Oi

Hot, tight set from The Blockheads in their prime.

Captured by the BBC during the band's promotion of New Boots and Panties, this is a great reminder of what a dynamic and exciting band The Blockheads were; and listening to this: still are.

The set is only short (they shared the hour long programme with Dr. Feelgood [I was going to post their set, but they're Wilko-less, and hey, you know...]), but they manage to include a selection of unarguably Dury's finest songs.

And the man himself - of course - was on bangin' form.

Ian Dury and The Blockheads - Live, 1977.
Original broadcast 10/12/77, Sight and Sound in Concert, BBC.

Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
I'm Partial To Your Abracadabra
Wake Up and Make Love With Me
Clever Trever
Billericay Dickie
Sweet Gene Vincent
Blockheads

Excellent rip from DVD captured broadcast @320kbs
All your mind and body need here

Friday 6 August 2010

Trashy

Bukowski said if he'd been born a woman he would have been a prostitute.

Well, if I'd been born a woman I would have wanted to be a Trashwoman.

Or at least a close approximation of.

Without doubt The Trashwomen are my favourite of the trashy-post-punk-garage-surf-rockabilly [is rockabilly gendered?] bands; they knocked spots off so many of their better known contemporaries.

And here's their debut album, capturing them at their best.
Every track's a killer. But just check out 'Justine', one of the best punk-surf tunes ever.

Their signature 'I'm Trash' is a raucous, rousing call to the depraved everywhere.
You'll soon be hooked; singing along, and wishing, like me, that you'd been a Trashwoman too.


The Trashwomen - Spend the Night With The Trashwomen (1993)

Marguya
Perversion
Daddy Love
Peter Gunn
Date's On Me
Nightmare at the Drag
Sling Rave Curvette
Space Needle
Justine
Quasimodo
Cum On Baby
I'm Trash
Aphrodesia

CD rip to mp3s
Spend some time with The Trashwomen here